Drs Mears, Iqbal and Dahl Also known as Swarland Avenue Surgery

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Drs Mears, Iqbal and Dahl, Swarland Avenue Surgery on 5 April 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• The practice carried out clinical audit activity and were able to demonstrate improvements to patient care as a result of this.
• Feedback from patients about their care was positive. Patients reported that they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect.
• The practice had obtained good National GP Patient Survey results in relation to appointment availability and experience and ease of making an appointment. 89% of patients described their experience of making an appointment as good compared to the CCG average of 89% and the national average of 85%.
• Urgent appointments were usually available on the day they were requested. Pre- bookable appointments were available within acceptable timescales.
• The practice had a number of policies and procedures to govern activity, which were reviewed and updated regularly.
• The practice had proactively sought feedback from patients and had an active patient participation group. The practice implemented suggestions for improvement and made changes in response to feedback. For example, they had moved back office functions away from the reception desk and to the upper floor of the building to aid patient confidentiality in response to patient feedback.
• The practice used the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) as one method of monitoring effectiveness and had achieved 98.6% of the point’s available (local clinical commissioning group average 96.7% and national average 94.7%)
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The practice had a clear vision in which quality and safety was prioritised. The strategy to deliver this vision was regularly discussed and reviewed with staff and stakeholders.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly, the provider should:

• Consider developing a comprehensive locum induction pack
• Consider installing a hearing loop
• Ensure that sharps bins are disposed of regularly regardless of whether they are less than two thirds full or not.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice